Gypsy, Kinetic Butterfly

Designed as a merger of natural shapes and mechanical movement, this piece uses different materials and manufacturing techniques to showcase simplicity and beauty.

• CNC milled wooden base
  
• Lasercut acrylic mechanism
  
• 3D printed butterfly, using clear and black filament in a multi-material printer

The butterfly was parametrically modelled using Rhino and Grasshopper in order to be able to quickly try out different models. After choosing the final wingshape, the little veins and cells where automatically generated using a Voronoi-based algorithm.

The mechanism was prototyped in wood first, allowing for multiple different settings. After experimentation, the best kinematic results were used for fabrication of the final mechanism.